She
by your-average-dork
Summary: Zatanna was like a work of art, untouchable and undeniably beautiful, but also complex. (Not a songfic but based off the song 'She' by Dodie Clark. I highly suggest you listen to that while reading this.) (One-sided Sniabsel)


**A/N:** This fanfiction was written without a beta, so if there is any mistakes, I will do my best to fix them. I also do not own Young Justice or She.

/

Artemis found herself glancing frequently at the magician on the other side of the roof top. She was just so nice to look at. Her big blue eyes and her ebony hair made the archer feel like Zatanna was a piece of artwork, untouchable and undeniably beautiful, but also complex. Sure, thinking this way could be seen as wrong immoral, and giving the way she grew up, she felt a little criminal thinking about her friend in such a way.

Artemis felt lucky that Miss Martian was off world currently, not because she had anything against her, but since the team is almost always connected my mind link, she didn't want the entire team hearing about her feelings for their resident magic user. She wasn't looking forward to any confrontations about the matter.

She thought she could ignore the way her hair perfectly draped itself across her back, the way she smelt like lemongrass and sleep, the way her pretty pink lips looked when she bit them in habit, and the way her quirks made her even more endearing. She thought she could ignore her crush on Zatanna, but that was proving to be more difficult with each passing day

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Robin's voice started talking through her comm link, "Hey, Artemis and Zatanna, Kid Flash and I ran into The Gotham City Sirens and we could really use some help down here," his voice was slightly shaky due to being in the mist of battle, "Aqualad and Superboy are dealing with Sportsmaster and Cheshire at the moment, so, get here as fast as you can!"  
She visibly twitched at her family's names, but Kaldur and Connor has it covered (hopefully), so she put away her binoculars and looked at Zatanna, "Ready?"

Zatanna smirked, "Always."

With that said, both girls took off running towards Robin and Kid Flash. They were by the docks and if Artemis knew anything about the sirens, it was that Catwoman would be the easiest to take down. Well, not easy in the slightest, but at least she wouldn't try to kill you. She's a thief, not a murderer. She's just in it for the money.

The archer flipped from one building to the next. She was no Robin, but she knew some basics. She landed on the roof above the battle with Zatanna in tow. After quickly observing the scene, it looked like Catwoman had fled, smart, but they were still left with the other two to deal with.

"Take Ivy! We'll handle Harley!" Robin called up to us while dodging the siren's oversized hammer.

"Handle me? I'd like to see you try, Boy Blunder!" Harley Quinn shouted back at him while throwing some rigged playing cards at him.

"Uh, hello! I'm here too you know!" Kid Flash yelled, offended that he was left out of the threat. Which sounds pretty weird, you know, wanting to be threatened, but Wally was weird, so, Artemis supposed it made sense.

The blond began shooting arrows at Poison Ivy. It didn't seem to do much other than make her angry. Her bow fell from her hands as the villain wrapped some sort of plant around her.

Zatanna looked at her asking silently if she needed help escaping.

"I'm fine, get Ivy!" Artemis shouted reaching for the knife strapped to her thigh.

Zatanna was starting to loose her patience from what it looked like from here. Every time she tried to say a spell, a plant hit her in the face. The archer really would have laughed if it wasn't such serious situation. She could really tell that Ivy was having a lot of fun with this.

Her knife was almost through the plant, when the magician was pushed in to the water by yet another plant.

Artemis cut through the plant as fast as she could and landed on her feet. Zatanna still wasn't out of the water. She ran toward Ivy and delivered a nada bong to her face and then punched her in the same spot over and over until it was clear that she wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.

As soon as that was over, she dived into the water and located her friend. After wrapping her arm around her, she swam her to the surface.

Artemis laid Zatanna gently on the ground and saw she wasn't breathing. She looked at the girl and thought for a spilt second before doing mouth-to-mouth CPR. She only stopped when the girl sat up coughing up water.

The blond sighed in relief before lightly slapping the girls arm, "Don't scare me like that again, Zee."

Still coughing, the ebony haired girl looked at her with a weak smile, "I'll try not too."

"Glad you're okay," Robin said from behind them.

"Me too, but I think we should still get you checked out to make sure."

"Can you walk?" He questioned while helping her up.

"Can you help me to the Bio-Ship, Rob?"

"Of course I can," Robin assured her, "Artemis, would you mind dragging KF on board? Harley knocked him out."

"Typical Kid Idiot getting himself knocked out," she rolled her eyes, "But sure," she said while walking toward Wally's unconscious body.

Grabbing him by the legs, she began dragging him, "Oh my god, what has he been eating?" the blond questioned when she finally got him inside.

"Probably everything," Robin told her with a little laughter in his voice. He then helped her set him on the hospital bed next to Zatanna's, who looked like she was about to fall asleep.

"Aqualad, Superboy, are you on your way? Do you need backup?" Artemis asked, her voice laced in concern.

Kaldur's voice rang through the comm, "No, Cheshire has escaped and Sportsmaster is down. We are headed back to the Bio-Ship now."

"Good to hear. See you both soon."

After the two boys returned, they decided to stick around until the authorities came to pick up the criminals and that gave her some time to think. Now that the danger was gone, she thought about the taste of Zatanna's lips, which was weird considering that she was saving her life, so she shouldn't really be thinking about it, but she couldn't help it. The magician tasted like apple juice and peach. While it was nice knowing what her lips tasted like, what Artemis wanted now was to kiss her, not save her life. Speaking of saving her life, the archer was so grateful that she wasn't dead, because Zatanna means everything to her.

It has been a long day, so Artemis laid down her head for just a second. Yeah, a small rest wouldn't hurt.

She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew, Robin was shaking her awake, "Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty," he said teasingly, "We're back."

She yawned in response and proceeded to exit the Bio-Ship.

/

In the next few weeks, Artemis' crush had become much more obvious and she was certain that Boy Wonder knew about it by this point. She wasn't so sure that was a good thing, because Robin seemed to also have feelings for Zatanna and she didn't want to be competing for her friend's attention with the bird. It didn't matter if Robin knew, really, because she would never admit it. She would never give in and tell her, or anyone really. Sure, keeping it a secret was giving her quite a bit of heart ache, but in a way, it felt oddly good to hurt. Artemis admired from afar and that was good enough for her.

She hadn't decided to act on her feeling until it looked like Robin might do the same, because it might be her last opportunity and if she doesn't try now, she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life wondering. So, when Zatanna's 15th birthday rolled around, she took a chance.

The day had started simple enough. She went though her usual routine, but in the back of her mind, anxiety was biting at her. She had gotten the girl a present that she was sure to like, but her second "present"? Artemis wasn't so sure.

When she walked into the cave, it was all she could do to act like nothing was bothering hurt, but that proved to be more difficult the moment she saw the birthday girl. She was gorgeous, as always, but that made the confrontation that much harder for her.

Artemis set her present down on the table and sat down on the couch waiting for Kaldur and Raquel to arrive. When they did, she stood up so Zatanna could blow out her candles. Then, Megan telekinetically cut the cake and passed it out. Artemis personally wasn't a big fan of blue velvet cake (She preferred vanilla to be honest), but if it Zatanna liked it, she could learn to like it. Now, Zee was opening her presents and the blond was growing more and more nervous by the minute, Megan even sent a few concerned glances in her direction.

She smiled when she saw the grin on Zatanna's face and the way her eyes lit up when she finished unwrapping her new polaroid camera. The magician had been wanting one for a long time and the smile on her face now, almost made what was coming next a little more bearable.

Her nose was filled with that warm citric scent when the girl gave her a hug, thanking her for the present.

So far, so good, but Artemis was still falling and she knew that tonight would be her inevitable splat.

After the party, she followed Zatanna to her room, "Zee? Could I talk to you for a second?"

The girl stopped and turned to face the archer, "Of course, Art," both girls walked into the ebony's room, "What did you need?" she asked while inviting the other girl to sit next to her on her bed, but the blond kept standing, because even when she's sitting right next to her, she feels like it makes them even further apart.

Artemis took a deep breath, "Look, I really don't know how to say this and I really don't think you feel the same way at all," she should have practiced more in her mirror in retrospect, "I hope we can still be friends after this."

Zatanna looked uncertain about what was going on and her confusion was clear in her words, "Artemis, we'll always be friends no matter what, but what are you talking about?"

"This," and with that, Artemis cupped her cheeks and kissed her lightly and quickly before running out the door and toward the cave entrance. She didn't want stick around to see her reaction.

"Artemis!" She heard a distressed shout from around the corner, "Wait!"

 _Artemis, B-07_

/

Later that night, she received a few texts from Zatanna, but she couldn't bring herself to read it just yet. She wasn't ready for crush to truly be crushed before her very eyes. She knew she had to face this eventually, but she _really_ didn't want to.

Gathering her courage, she opened the texts.

 **From: Zee**

 **May 20**

 _(10:50)_

 _You do know you can't ignore me forever, right? You might not want to hear this, but you were right, I don't feel the same, but that would never stop me from being your friend. I honestly am really flattered that you like me, but (1/3)_

 **From: Zee**

 **May 20**

 _(10:50)_

 _I'm afraid that I am tragically heterosexual. You are one of my best friends and if you honestly think that something like this could come between us, that I haven't been living up to my full friend potential. I value our friendship (2/3)_

 **From: Zee**

 **May 20**

 _(10:50)_

 _too much and I really do hope that we can continue to be as close as we were, because I hate the possibility of losing you as a friend. How about you, me, and Megan go do something together tomorrow? C: (3/3)_

Artemis sighed in relief. Zatanna's friendship was good enough and she was glad that it wouldn't change, but being rejected sucked. To her, Zatanna's kiss, actual kiss this time, tasted like birthday cake, but she also tasted like story time and autumn. To Zatanna, her kiss tasted like nothing, absolutely nothing at all.

No matter how much it sucked, the magician still meant everything to her and she could live with that, as long as she had the ebony haired girl by her side, even if it was just as friends.

 **To: Zee**

 **May 21**

 _(12:00)_

 _Sounds great. :)_

 _/_

 **A/N:** I sort of struggled with the ending, but overall, I really like this one, so please, please, please review and do my poll. :)

Thanks for reading!


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